Athens, Greece Jet Pickup

I mentioned previously our jets have been undergoing the CCIP upgrade at Tanagra Air Base, Greece. Well, I've since been to Greece twice to flight test a jet and then fly it back here to Aviano. The first trip to Greece ended up being almost one week long due to maintenance issues with the jet on a Friday before a long weekend...the following Monday was a Greece holiday. Even before leaving Italy we were told there was a good chance the jet wouldn't be ready to fly home on Friday. So, I had Lana fly to Athens with me hoping we'd have a long weekend together in Greece; our plan worked! Early Thursday morning, Lana and I took the train to the airport with me and bought a ticket on the same flight I was taking. With her Lufthansa flight attendant job, it only cost about 40 euro. Another pilot from the squadron met us there and we were on our way about 9:30. After arriving in Athens, we picked up our rental car and made our way to the hotel. After checking in we went to a nearby restaurant for some Greek food and then called it a night early so we were ready for the next day.

Tanagra Air Base is about one hour north of Athens. After arriving, we met the USAF personnel working there and finalized paperwork prior to the test flight. A few weeks prior to this trip, I had completed what we call the functional check flight (FCF) upgrade. Essentially, there are times when certain types maintenance is done on a jet that requires a flight to test all systems are functioning property. It's a jam packed flight ranging from flying supersonic a 1.4 mach to putting the jet basically out of control to see if the digital flight controls function as they should. I was ready to fly when in the early afternoon they noticed a slow air leak in one of the main landing gear tires...this was not going to be fixed until the next week, which started on Tuesday due to the holiday. So, we left the base and headed to our 5 star hotel a little further north on the beach in the town of Eretria. The price was under our cap for hotel costs and was a nice start to our time in Greece. The next day we took a ferry across the bay, and the caught a bus to Athens to see the Parthenon on Mars Hill and some of the nearby Greek ruins.

Mars Hill is one of the exact places Paul traveled to on his missionary journeys almost 200o years ago! As we made our way up the hill, one of the signs had a portion that read, "In the niche formed by southeast corner of the precinct wall were found the remains of a small roadside shrine of porous stone. It was dedicated to an unknown deity..." Now, if you read Acts 17:23 written by Paul it says, "For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD'!" Lana and I both felt reading this on the sign and from the Bible made everything more real...the truth of God is real!

On top of Mars Hill is the well known Parthenon dating back to well before Christ, sometime during the 5th century BC. It's amazing the structure is still standing today after so many years. Thankfully, archaeologists are taking the time to preserve what is left today. We spent a good hour or so there and spent some more time reading from Acts before finding a nice cafe for a drink. We caught an afternoon bus back to our hotel just in time to get another great tasting Greek salad before the hotel restaurant closed for the evening! We spent Sunday and Monday at the hotel pool and beach relaxing and getting some sun before heading back to the base on Tuesday. Thankfully the jet was ready to flight test, and all systems checked good. After I landed the maintainers put the external wing tanks back on, fueled the jet and I flew home before sunset that evening. The other pilot on the trip sat in the tower during my test flight with the emergency checklist to help in case I had any problems. He took a commercial flight back home later in the evening, and Lana flew to Munich to work a Lufthansa trip to Los Angeles.

My second trip to Greece was only two days and there wasn't much time for additional site seeing. I had some time to check out the 2004 Summer Olympic Park, but that's about it. Yet another country and culture to add to an ever growing list! It's good blessed with a job in the US Air Force!

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Athens, Greece

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Wingman / Flight Lead Of The Quarter

About one month ago, I was selected as the flight lead of the quarter for the 510FS and also for the 31FW where both squadrons compete against each other. It's nice to know my hard work in the scheduling shop and being assistant projo for the Zaragoza trip has paid off. Also, the cross-country I lead went without any problems, so that may have been a contributing factor as well. Back in the fall of 2006 I was selected as wingman of the quarter right before going to the desert, but I don't think I ever mentioned it. These awards help when it comes time for my officer's training reports to be written, and it gives guys the motivation to keep working hard. I'm not writing this to brag on myself, but just to let everyone know that hard work has its benefits. Check six!

Berlin Airshow

The Berlin Airshow was a very enjoyable week. My wingman, Garrett, and I landed early Monday morning at Schoenefeld Airport about 1 hour before the show started. The support personnel quickly fueled our jets and towed them into position with the rest of the US Air Force aircraft. The USAF had a C-5, C-17, KC-135, 2 B-1s, an F-15C and E and our 2 F-16s. There were also fighter from Germany, France and Hungary. This event was more than just an airshow. It was also an international trade show for countries around the world to attend and see the latest and greatest technology as they consider buying new military equipment as well as show off what equipment they had to offer. Many countries are considering upgrading their fighter aircraft and those up for consideration usually are the French Rafale, US F-16 and Swedish Gripen. The Eurofighter is also a player, but it's more expensive then the other three. It did give quite an impressive flight demo along with the Dutch F-16 demo team. In the years ahead, the F-35 will be the new fighter around and hopefully I can make a transition into flying it.

With this being the case, Lockheed Martin (maker of the F-16) had many of their potential buyers stop by our jets for some "show and tell" time. I'm probably not the best salesman there is, but having flown the jet quite a bit I could offer my fairly credible opinion. Lockheed paid for our hotel rooms and even put on a big dinner for all the USAF personnel staying at the hotel.

In addition to the potential buyers, there were some big wigs walking around. General Brady, USAFE commander, the US Undersecretary of Defense and a couple other generals stopped by. The German chancellor attended the show too. So, needless to say it was important we were ready at all times. Once the important people would move on, it was then time to show the local attendees the jets and let them take pictures. Many young kids had a great time being so close to a fighter jet, and I put some of the smaller ones in the cockpit so they would have a great memory in the years ahead.

As most Americans know, Berlin was the center of a mass airlift operation after WWII by the US and British Air Forces to supply the local population with food and supplies since the Russians had cut off all supplies to the city...it was called the Berlin Airlift. Temelhof Airfield was the center of this effort and over 5,000 tons of goods a day were flown in. As we traveled around Berlin, we saw remains of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie and a bombed out church left standing in order to never forget what happened during the war. Reading the stories of families being split by the wall were very sad, and many we shot trying to escape East Germany. It was great to travel to another part of Germany with Lana, and she enjoyed the fact I was able to learn more about her country.

Besides the historical things, we saw Alexanderplatz where a few scenes from The Borne Ultimatum were filmed and many other interesting places around the city. Lana and I took a day trip to the Potsdam Palace, which is located to the southwest of Berlin. It was completed in 1769 by Frederick the Great. Over the years it had been used by the royals and kings of the region...a very nice area.

The airshow finished on Sunday with Monday being a US holiday. So, our squadron director of operations wanted us to get some extra flights by flying somewhere in Europe. Our plan took us to Leeuwarden Air Base, Netherlands for one night and then through Garons Air Base, France on the way back to Aviano. It was my first time to the Netherlands; another new and interesting culture. This wrapped up a great week and another great experience for Lana and I as we continue along in our Air Force journey. Enjoy the pictures!

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Berlin Airshow

Incirlik Air Base, Turkey

Late in May, our squadron went TDY to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey to train and use their air-to-ground bombing range at Konya. Konya is the first TDY I went on with the Buzzards back in 2006. We were in a different location this time, but using the same range. As I've mentioned before, Italy doesn't have a range we can use close by, so we always have to go somewhere to train...just like we did to Zaragoza, Spain back in February. Our training included CAS flights in the local area around the base as well as those to Konya to drop heavy weight inert bombs. The inerts are the same sice as an LGB or GPS guided bomb would be without the guidance equipment.

The base if half Turkish and half US, so our time on the base was fine. The gym, dining hall and BX were nice, but the "hooches" reminded me of being back in the desert again. The regular hotel rooms were all full, so the facilities we stayed in were those used by fighter guys supporting Operation Northern Watch after the first Gulf War. Overall it wasn't bad...the only thing I didn't care for on the trip was the fact I got sick for a good week while there. It's the sickest I can remember being in a long time with headache, fever and stomach issues. Because of it I missed a couple flying days and a weekend trip to the beach.

One flight in particular stands out during the trip. I was the flight lead that day and my wingman and I were both carrying two 2000# inerts to the range. We were also scheduled to work with a forward air controller airborne (FAC-A) who had willy peak rockets on his jet to make the target (the rockets give off a white smoke after they hit the ground) he wanted our bombs on. Our pop attack flow took my wingman and I in a 500 ft / 500 knots about 30 seconds behind the FAC-A so that he could mark the target and then turn back around and watch our attack to make sure we were pointed at the correct vehicle. If he needed to, he has the authority to have us abort the pass (not drop our bombs) and reattempt. As my wingman and I pulled up from 500 ft, we both called "tally smoke" and then rolled in one behind the other to hit the target. Our first try was successful and another good learning experience for me still being a young flight lead. I also got to shoot some rockets on another flight, so I'm now "rocket qualified."

Just outside the base is what's called "the alley." During Operation Northern Watch, there were many more military personnel and the locals depended on them to buy their products along the alley. You can buy a wide variety of things, but the most popular are the Turkish rugs. Many of the guys bought rugs, but I decided not to. I'm not much of a rug person at this point in my life. Depending on what time of the day someone is shopping along the alley, they might hear the Muslim call to prayer...it's a little strange initially, but after a few days it becomes a little more normal. The mosque above is the main one in Adana, the biggest city close to the base.

Tomorrow I'm leading two jets up to northern Germany for the Berlin Air Show at Shoenefeld Airport 8-13 June. My wingman is a good friend of mine, and our wives plan to fly up and do sight seeing and enjoy the airshow with us. If all goes well, we'll alternate days to travel a bit around the area. Airshows were always a great time for me growing up as a kid seeing all the planes...especially the fighter jets. Now, I'm leading a 2-ship to an airshow myself. Time to pack and get some sleep...God is good!

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Incirlik AB, Turkey

London - Another Cross-Country

Like the last cross-country I went on, it pays to be a volunteer and in the right place at the right time. This time around, they were looking for another flight lead to fly as #3 to Lakenheath, UK and then on to Spain and southern Italy again to fight the Eurofighters. Well, after a short round of rock-paper-scissors with another guy in the squadron, I won and was in as #3. I was looking forward to this cross-country a lot because Capt Chapman, my good friend way back from OTS, is a WSO in the F-15E squadron at Lakenheath. He and I are in the picture below. The plan was to fly in on Thursday, do some dissimilar aircraft training (DACT) with the F-15 Eagles and then leave Friday night for Spain. Well due to some maintenance issues, two of us ended up staying the weekend and then flying back to Aviano on Monday after my wingman's jet was fixed. We ended up spending our time at my friend's place for the weekend and got to see London and Cambridge where many of England's well know colleges are. Well known men like Isaac Newton attended school here. There's also a popular pub called The Eagles Nest well known to fighter pilots because it's a place where the Royal Air Force and US Air Force flighter pilots from WWII went to relax after a stressful flight fighting the Germans. There are many names of pilots who flew burned into the ceiling by candles still readable. We also did what they call "punting" on the river that runs through Cambridge...it looks a lot like steering a gondola in Venice...no one fell in, but almost!

The next day, we headed to London to check out some of the well known sites in the city. We saw Big Ben, Tower Bridge (most think it's called London Bridge, but it's not) and a few other places. Compared to Rome, London is very different. I wish I'd have had more time to see St. Paul's cathedral and some of the WWII sites like Churchill's command bunker. The rest of the weekend we spent our time close to the base and waited for the jet to be fixed before flying home on Monday. Yet another paid trip by the Air Force...no complaints here!

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Cambridge & London

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